Argentine Senate debates measure to legalize abortion

12 August, 2018

The message reportedly became a trending Twitter topic in Argentina. The phrase, imbued as it is with fervent expectation, may seem puzzling to outsiders - but inside the country, the meaning is crystal clear.

The Argentine Senate voted 38 to 31 against a proposed measure that would have legalized a woman's right to seek an abortion into the 14th week of pregnancy.

The bill had originally been passed by Congress' lower house by a narrow margin in June.

Senators in Argentina voted down a bill Thursday that would have legalized abortion on demand until week 14 of a pregnancy.

There are at least 350,000 illegal abortions in Argentina every year, the Ministry of Healthestimates, though worldwide human rights groups say the number may be higher, with dozens of women dying each year as a result.

Jose Miguel Vivanco, director for the Americas at Human Rights Watch, said that Argentina had a "historic opportunity" to protect the rights of women.

"The criminalization of abortion is an extreme form of violence against women".

Lawmakers debated the bill for more than 16 hours, during which pro-choice Sen.

Macri has said he is personally opposed to abortion but allowed the debate. Abortion will be legal soon.

On Wednesday, he said regardless of the result, the vote and the surrounding debate was a victory for democracy in Argentina. A majority of senators - 37 by the latest tally - had declared their intention to vote no before the body even convened for debate Wednesday.

Senators in Argentina have voted against legalising abortion in the homeland of Pope Francis.

Abortion rights activists say the bill's approval would be a watershed moment for Latin America, where more than 97% of women of reproductive age live in countries with restrictive abortion laws, according to the Guttmacher Institute, a think tank focused on reproductive rights.

And though Macri has expressed his willingness to sign the bill into law, his vice president, Gabriela Michetti, recently said she wished things were actually heading in the other direction. "We're deciding abortion in a hospital, or illegal abortion, with a clothes hanger, or anything else that puts a woman in a humiliating, degrading situation - a real torture", she said.

Obviously, though, the debate has not been confined to the politicians.

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